Wollmuth, Lonnie P ABSTRACT The trainee (Noele Certain) is a PhD student who is starting her 3rd year of graduate training in the Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at Stony Brook University. Noele?s long-term goal is to maintain an independent research lab in parallel with a teaching career ? she wants to be a strong role-model and mentor to other underrepresented minorities. I believe my laboratory will provide the necessary environment for Noele to achieve her career goals. Specifically, my laboratory and its surroundings will provide Noele with a strong intellectual and technical environment; she will study scientific issues of great clinical importance (structure/function and cell biology of AMPA receptors); she will obtain rigorous training ? an issue of fundamental importance for any scientist; she will be given guidance but also considerable freedom so that she can develop and mature as an independent scientist; she will be given numerous opportunities to present her data in public forums, both locally and nationally; and finally she will be given opportunities to teach undergraand mentor undergraduates under my guidance. With a rigorous but broad background in molecular and cellular pharmacology, Noele will be well prepared to pursue her goal of a research career and to research any topic that may be appropriate as she develops her own research lab. In addition, she will be well placed to act as a mentor for undergraduate and graduate students including underrepresented minorities. Page 1